The Education/Electric Buying Group, which represents Long Island public schools, has asked the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) to separately consider its proposal for a competitive electric pilot program. The program calls for electricity purchased at the best price, rather than just through the Long Island Lighting Co. The buying group claims that LILCO has refused requests to discuss the proposal. The school districts estimate they could save $20 million annually in electricity costs without substantially affecting LILCO's net earnings.

Green Pricing Premium: Less than it Seems

I disagree with the idea that green-pricing programs with the lowest premiums prove the most popular with residential utility customers, as suggested by the article, "Green Pricing: The Bigger Picture" (Byrnes et al., August 1996, p. 18). And, to the extent that that notion comes from information presented about the SolarCurrents program at Detroit Edison (DE), which I manage, I offer some points in rebuttal.

First, the number of participants may prove misleading.

SCANA Corp. promoted William B. Timmerman, president, to COO. John L. Skolds, senior v.p. of generation at SCANA subsidiary South Carolina Electric & Gas, became president and COO. Skolds replaces Bruce D. Kenyon, who left the company to become president of Northeast Nuclear Energy Co.

James T. Egler was promoted from president of Equitable Resources Inc.'s marketing division to CEO of Equitable Gas Co., a regulated subsidiary.

Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. promoted Bob Bahnick to v.p., operations & engineering.

Three weeks ago I traveled to Indianapolis to Speak at the Indiana Energy Conference, a meeting sponsored by the Citizens Action Coalition and a board group from the local gas and electric industries, including a fair number of state government employees. Focusing on issues largely specific to Indiana, that audience gave the meeting a novel perspective: What's a low-cost state to do?

Do you fix it if it ain't broke?

techniques may imply trade-offs in service

quality.By Scott L. Englander, John E. Flory,

Leslie K. Norford, and Richard D. TaborsAs facility manager for a large hotel, you browse your energy vendor's web site to view tomorrow's hourly prices. But it seems your computer (pc) has already done some browsing of its own. Since it's connected to your energy management system, your pc has already looked up the weather forecast and has logged on to the hotel's main computer to find out what rooms will be used.

The Internet doesn't suit companies

that are vulnerable to security or financial risk (em

like electric transmission providers.

THE RUSH IS ON TO SET OASIS IN MOTION.

Despite a recent delay, the stage

appears set for online trading

in electric transmission capacity.

THIS IS ONLY A TEST (EM FOR NOW.

But come January, if all goes well, the OASIS program will start up in real time, with customers venturing onto the Internet to place reservations for capacity on the nation's electric transmission grid.

With no system in place to collect data, retail choice brought gridlock to England and Wales in 1994.

Competition

at the Meter: Lessons

From the U.K.Metering lies at the heart of electric competition, but may work best as a "natural" monopoly controlled by the distribution utility.Metering represents one of the more complex issues in retail electric competition (em one that suffers from major misperceptions.

NIPSCO wins top prize for customer information

system deemed state-of-the-art.

Runner-up Brooklyn Union melds Internet

technology with internal systems.To borrow a phrase, only three things matter in energy competition: technology, technology, and technology.

An exaggeration, perhaps, but not too far off for the three-dozen-plus electric and gas utilities that submitted applications for the 1996 Utility Leadership Award for Information Technology (em ULTRA for short.

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